Jazz Guitar Chord Lick – Chromatic ii V I

A big part of learning how to play jazz guitar chords, is learning how to apply these shapes to your chord soloing, chord melody and comping ideas in a musical way, that sounds improvised and not like an exercise.

To help you apply common chord shapes to your jazz guitar chord solos and comping phrases, here is a quick lick that you can study, break down, work in 12 keys, and bring into your jazz guitar chord ideas in order to increase your vocabulary and practical application of chord shapes at the same time.

Jazz Guitar Chord Lick – Chromatic ii V I

The crux of this lick is the chromatic movement that is first felt in the bass notes of the Am7 chord, moving down from the 9th to the root, 7 and b7, before resolving to the F#, the 3rd of D7 on beat 3 of that bar.

This is a technique, moving from the 9th of a iim7 chord down to the 3rd of the V7 chord, that I’ve taken from Ed Bickert’s chord work, as he was a fan of this type of line in his comping and soloing ideas.

The second half of the first bar switches the chromatic line from the bass to the melody as you move down from the 13th, B, of D7 to the root, G of Gmaj7 on the downbeat of the next bar.

You’ll notice that the first three chromatic notes, B-Bb-A, are played over the same chord shape, a D9 (F#-C-E), and then to spice things up a bit I’ve added a chromatic approach chord, Ab, that resolves by a half step down to the Gmaj7 chord at the end of the line.

Practice chord soloing over the same tune, using this chord lick as the basis for your ii V I lines. You can space out the notes to make it fit a longer, 4-bar ii V I jazz guitar chord progression as well if you wish.

Do you have a question or comment about this jazz guitar chord lick? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.